ENEMY by Marley Poff

     In a world far, far away from ours, near the center of the Andromeda galaxy, there are a collection of strange creatures living in a city similar to some of Earth’s called Xedite. 

     There was The Lorx, a small creature with no arms and orange fur that spoke for the trees. The Lemon Listener, a yellow creature resembling a lemon with one huge ear. The Noon, a floating eye that served as the God of this world. Natalia, a shapeshifter and demigod who served as The Noon’s right-hand woman. Glitch, a pixelated creature with a screen for a face. Wifi Boi, Glitch’s extremely tall brother whose antennae always pointed to the nearest power source. Racer, a bird-like being with huge wings but could not fly for long, and a VERY hyperactive personality. Bean,a sphere-shaped creature with huge eyes and the ability to see someone’s future and past. And The Death Worm, a species of worm that lived in the ground and ate whoever was unlucky enough to step into one’s mouth.

CHAPTER 1

     One day, Glitch and Wifi Boi called a city-wide meeting with The Noon, making sure that everyone came. When everyone got to the community center, Wifi Boi stood at the podium.

     “People of Xedite, Glitch and I have discovered an energy source too strong to be anything from this planet. Just outside the city, there was a recent meteor shower that we know you all watched. My antenna started to pull me towards one of the crash sites, and I realized these were no ordinary meteors. We need to know if any of you have more info,” said Wifi Boi, stepping aside so Glitch could speak.

     “My ser-er-ervers completely o-overloaded when I went to investig-a-ate,” Glitch said, answering everyone’s question of why his voice was lagging.

     “What the Hell is that supposed to mean!?” said The Lemon Listener as he stood up. “You can’t just tell us we’re all in lethal danger and ask if WE know what you’re talking about!” “SILENCE,” said The Noon. “WE DID NOT ASK FOR YOUROPINION ON THE SITUATION, WE ASKED FOR INFORMATION. STANDDOWN.”

     The Lemon Listener immediately sat back down, the sound of The Noon’s voice still echoing in his head.

    Suddenly, Natalia spoke up. 

     “I’m sorry, sir, but I agree with Lemon Listener. How are we supposed to help if we have no idea what we’re even dealing with? Or what if Glitch and Wifi Boi are lying? It’s confusing. Like seriously confusing. No one here ACTUALLY has information that isn’t A, a wild guess, B, a prank, C, a crime scene or something, and D, absolutely nothing. It’s dumb,” said Natalia, being one of the only people in the room who wasn’t scared of The Noon. They all thought she was so cool. The Noon, agreeing with Natalia, sat down just as The Lorx stood up to speak.

     “Well, I actually do have some evidence. My trees have all been either growing extremely fast, mutating, or not growing at all. I think it’s because of the static and such from the unknown power source Wifi Boi and Glitch speak of,” said The Lorx. 

     The Lemon Listener stood up and said, “As Lorx’s best friend, I second this. I’ve been hearing some really annoying buzzing for about 4days now and it's giving me a headache.”

     After about an hour of everyone talking and sharing all of the info they had about the energy source, while everyone went home, The Noon and Natalia decided to stay behind at the city community center to talk about something else Natalia wanted to say during the meeting but didn’t get a chance to.

     “I just don’t understand. The last time anything like this happened was over 30,000 years ago, and our world has completely changed since then, so it can’t be the same thing. It’s so frustrating,” said Natalia. 

     “YOU ARE CORRECT. THIS CANNOT BE THE SAME ISSUE. WEMUST FIGURE OUT WHY THIS IS HAPPENING BEFORE IT CAUSES ANY FURTHER PROBLEMS. I TRUST YOU WILL TRY AND FIGUREOUT WHAT IS GOING ON?” said The Noon.

     “Yes, Sir,” said Natalia as they both left.

CHAPTER 2

     A week later, The Lorx, The Lemon Listener, and Racer decided to investigate where the power source was coming from. Unfortunately, according to Wifi Boi the power source was directly in the middle of a Death Worm minefield.

     Here is a quick Death Worm guide.

     Death Worms are extremely dangerous and can only be recognized by a circle of items, which are in fact a Death Worm’s teeth. A Death Worm can transform their teeth into anything, but the most common Death Worm circles appear to be made of rocks, mushrooms, needles, sticks, pens, or flowers.

     “Come on, you can’t be THAT stupid to still want to investigate the power source when it’s in the dead center of a literal DEATH WORMMINEFIELD. That’s basically suicide! I’m not going,” said Racer when The Lemon Listener told him exactly where they were going. 

     “Seriously? It’s not even that dangerous, we just have to look out for Death Worm circles! Coward,” said The Lemon Listener.

     “I am NOT a coward, I just don’t have a death wish! As if any of you pay attention enough to see a Death Worm circle! I just don’t wanna die!” Racer shot back.

     “Fine, be boring. But you won’t get to say that you survived a Death Worm minefield...” said The Lorx, trying to tempt him.

     “And, nevermind, I’m in, when are we leaving?’ said Racer, who had already grabbed his stuff. 

     “Knew it,” said The Lorx.

     About 20 minutes after they all left Racer’s house, they got to the edge of the Death Worm minefield, which was blocked off by a 20-foot tall fence.

     “Hey, they didn’t have this last time I was here!” said Racer. “Whatever, gimme one sec.” 

     Racer then ran up the wall, using his talons to make it easier, and offered The Lorx and The Lemon Listener a wing from the top of the fence.

     “Grab on, I’ll throw you guys over,” said Racer, stretching out his wing some more. The Lorx grabbed on to his wing, and The Lemon Listener grabbed on to The Lorx’s hand so they could both be pulled up. Suddenly, Racer moved his wings and flung them both over the fence, making sure neither of them landed in a Death Worm circle before flying down from the fence himself. They were all sure they felt the static from the power source. After a while of walking and being careful to dodge every Death Worm circle they could see, they saw one of the meteors from the recent meteor shower, but it looked...wrong. It was a bit too big to be a regular meteor, there was a strange pink glow being emitted from it, and the most shocking thing was that there was heat lightning around it. So much so that The Lemon Listener had to cover his ear and Racer’s feathers stood on end.

     “So... what do we do now?” asked The Lorx.

     “Well how are we supposed to know, we just got here!” yelled Racer.

     “Wait, hold on, I see something,” said The Lorx as he got closer to the meteor, looking underneath it.

     “There’s a Death Worm corpse here. A young one. Isn’t that weird? Death Worms can survive up to 6 years without food, so why is this one dead?” asked The Lorx.

     “A Death Worm is dead, so what? Anything could’ve killed it. Disease, another starving Death Worm, the impact of the meteor, there’s no way that it could specifically be the power source. I swear to The Noon, you think too much into stuff sometimes,” said Racer.

     “Thats not the point! I’ve been studying these things so they don’t hurt my trees, and these minefields are formed to be perfect Death Worm habitats! There’s no chemicals, no real natural predators if these Death Worms have eaten, and NO way that the impact killed it if it’s on the surface!” yelled The Lorx, getting fed up. “Could you just be less closedminded for once?”

     “Fine, fine, I get it! Sorry that I haven’t been studying Death Worms my whole life! And for the record, I am VERY smart, I’m just not interested in that specifically. There’s a difference,” said Racer.

     "Uh huh. Whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy,” interjected The Lemon Listener.

     “HEY!” yelled Racer.

     “Okay, okay, sorry. Let’s get back to the point. How even did this thing die? ‘Cause obviously it couldn’t have been natural causes. And look, there’s no bite marks, so signs of disease, and the body is still warm but there's no pulse. And its skin has already turned black, which we all know means that it’s for sure dead,” said The Lemon Listener. “Any ideas?”

     “Well none of us would know. Should we bring it into town? Maybe have someone look at it for evidence? And plus, we HAVE to tell Glitch and Wifi Boi about this,” said Racer.

     “Yeah, Lemon, he’s right. Even with all my knowledge on Death Worms, I still have no idea what’s going on,” added The Lorx. The Lemon Listener silently agreed. “Guess we’re going back to town then.”

To Be Continued...